2016 (Page 3)

“When the facts change, I change my mind, what do you do Sir?” John Maynard Keynes is reported to have said. Let’s just recall the feelings on the morning of September 19 2014. Despair, depression and dejection were the high points as I came to terms with what had happened on the day to be forever known as Black Thursday, I wanted to chuck it all in, move to Spain and live out my remaining years without another canvass pack or leaflet run. Ever. In the following days, tens of thousands of people changed their minds. Some had been out campaigning for a YESRead More →

The day had come. I had waited 43 years to see this play. Being 13 at the time I was just too young to go see it. It had a lot to live up to. I had heard about it over the years from many who had seen it on the very first tour. I was attending this updated production with my other half who had seen the original production at an S.N.P. conference. Many of the then upcoming actors in the production had gone on to be well known quality actors. Could this new production live up to what had become an iconic memory?Read More →

The above is an amalgam of two Latin phrases I cobbled up in an idle moment. Status Quo is “as things were before”, and Quo Vadis is “Whither goest thou?” Sums up Westminster. Well at least we know where Scotland should be going; Nicola has challenged Party members to start canvassing support for another Independence Referendum. The Unionists and their media pals – we don’t have many- are carping away about how the Summer Independence campaign has becoming the Autumn one. It wasn’t a great summer, weatherwise, but we managed to convincingly win another Scottish Parliamentary Election, that’s three in a row, plus theRead More →

The United Kingdoms of England, Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland had an advisory referendum in June on whether to leave the European Union. 51.89% of the public who bothered to vote, did so to leave. 48.11% of these voters wanted to remain. This meant that the government were going to remove us from the European Union on a vote with a majority of 3.78%. In my book that is hardly a decisive majority. I would say it was too close to call! So we all panicked. Argued over what it was going to mean to our different sections of society. Scotland’s First Minister immediately startedRead More →

Well, that’s the end of summer (what summer?) Be fair, the kids went back to school and we had a few days of glorious sunshine – it was ever thus! Summer is usually the dull time for us political junkies, but boy, has this year been an exception. We have been deafened by the sound of dragging feet from the Tories following their Brexit debacle (what a jolly wheeze that was!) To add to the seasonal delight, the “once great” Labour Party have kept us all amused as they publicly beat themselves to death. As if this was not enough for us sad anoraks,Read More →

The summer holidays have come to an end; hair is cut, bags are packed and bedtime battles once again ensue. The family holiday was a few days in Fife, an area of the country that I had not visited for many years and a welcome change of scenery. The children delighted in fruit farms and go carts, horse riding and play parks whilst I marvelled at the lack of travel time needed between towns. When you are used to travelling several hours to the nearest city, 15 minutes commute from one large town to another takes a bit of getting used to and we wereRead More →

John Mason stirred the Unionist nest the other week with his statement that he personally boycotts Barrhead Travel following its Tory owner’s intervention in the 2014 Referendum when said owner wrote to each individual staff member calling on him or her to reject the Independence question. Deputy Tory Leader, Jackson Carlaw MSP, called John’s political statement in a tweet, ‘petulant beyond belief’. Nothing like a touch of faux outrage with your cornflakes of a morning. The official SNP response was dismissive in its usual anonymous manner: personal trivial statements, not the party line. What would have been more helpful all round is if there hadRead More →

This piece tries to capture my thoughts over a four week visit to family in Canada over July. It covers conversations with family, their friends and in some cases complete strangers. Long story short; my parents divorced when I was a toddler and just 5 years ago, at the age of 60, I discovered that I have two brothers and a sister in Canada. Fortunately, we all get on well and over the last few weeks, the Boss and I have been visiting them for a family wedding in Calgary with stops along the way. But I wanted to take the time to have aRead More →